The Lovers’ Chronicle 2 December – desire – art by Georges Seurat

02 December 2023 By Rhett 0 In Random

Dear Zazie, Here is today’s Lovers’ Chronicle from Mac Tag dedicated to his muse. What are your dreams and desires? Rhett

The Lovers’ Chronicle

Dear Muse,

i write because i want to get to somethin’ new

and the means of expression, a mixture of you

and my reactions followin’, the frame comin’

into a different view, in harmony aligned

to those of the tones, tints, and lines

of the vision, i see in you, poetry

words to live with,

she insisted

“Don’t you understand!”

i pulled myself together

and wrote slowly

the last word

was her name

i heard a sigh

“I knew it, I was sure!”

i heard her weepin’

it seemed to me

that everything

would collapse

but, no, hear

words, rendered

into desire

tryin’ to tell everything
to think this and say it
since i paint this way

“Took long enough.”

(was it too long)
to find this approach

set aside doubt
ideas on tone
and precepts
on subtlety of tint
and verse

“Who were we?”

thoughts that come
photographin’ you
paintin’ you

reachin’ under,
“Yes.” whispered,
your dress

there from the start
always there

“More questions?”
sure, why not
“What do you want?”
oh, that is easy…
friendship
understandin’
to see
“To see? See what?”
your beauty and sorrow

comes that dream again
the one i welcome and curse
it comes with visions of hope
of what could be
it comes with an aide-mémoire
of what most likely
will never be

Dreams And Desires

So much has been said
So little has been said
So much remains to be said
Or does it

Which is better
To act out one’s desires

Or keep them to oneself
Hidden in one’s dreams
How to know
Which desires, when acted on,
Will bring more pleasure than pain
More good than grief

How to know
Which desires should be kept
Safely tucked away
Deep inside dreams

Desires versus dreams
Dreams and/or desires

That is the challenge
To balance the two
To live in the sunshine
To limit the what ifs
To limit the regrets
To live a life one can believe in

Georges Seurat
Georges Seurat, 1888

Today is the birthday of Georges-Pierre Seurat (Paris 2 December 1859 – 29 March 1891 Paris); post-Impressionist painter and draftsman. He is noted for his innovative use of drawing media and for devising the painting techniques known as chromoluminarism and pointillism. Seurat’s artistic personality showed both extreme and delicate sensibility; and a passion for logical abstraction. His large-scale work, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884–1886), altered the direction of modern art by initiating Neo-impressionism, and is one of the icons of late 19th-century painting.

Seurat concealed his relationship with Madeleine Knobloch (or Madeleine Knoblock, 1868–1903), an artist’s model whom he portrayed in his painting Jeune femme se poudrant. In 1889 she moved in with Seurat in his studio on the 7th floor of 128bis Boulevard de Clichy.

When Madeleine became pregnant, the couple moved to a studio at 39 passage de l’Élysée-des-Beaux-Arts (now rue André Antoine).

Seurat died in Paris in his parents’ home at the age of 31. The cause of his death is uncertain, and has been variously attributed to a form of meningitis, pneumonia, infectious angina, and diphtheria. His last ambitious work, The Circus, was left unfinished at the time of his death.

30 March 1891 a commemorative service was held in the church of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul. Seurat was interred 31 March 1891 at Cimetière du Père-Lachaise.

Gallery

1889–90, Le Chahut, oil on canvas, 170 x 141 cm, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, 1884–86, oil on canvas, 207.5 × 308.1 cm, Art Institute of Chicago

Jeune femme se poudrant (Young Woman Powdering Herself), 1888–90, oil on canvas, 95.5 x 79.5 cm, Courtauld Institute of Art

Detail from Circus Sideshow (Parade de Cirque) (1889) showing pointillism and color theory

The Suburbs, 1882–83, Musée d’art moderne de Troyes
Fishing in The Seine, 1883, Musée d’art moderne de Troyes
The Laborers 1883, National Gallery of Art Washington, DC.
Study for A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, 1884–85, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Bathers at Asnières, 1884, National Gallery, London
View of Fort Samson 1885, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
Circus Sideshow (Parade de Cirque), 1887–88, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Seine and la Grande Jatte – Springtime 1888, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
Les Poseuses (The Models), 1888, Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia

The Eiffel Tower 1889, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco
The Circus, 1891, Musée d’Orsay, Paris

Child in White, 1884-85, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Seated Nude, Study for Une Baignade, 1883, Scottish National Gallery
L’Écho, study for Une Baignade, Asnières (Bathing Place, Asnières), Yale University Art Gallery
Joueur de trombone (Study for Parade de cirque), private collection